Bar Raided for Using Whale-Infused Whiskey in Cocktails

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London takes its animal rights seriously. Police recently raided a cocktail bar that was serving a drink flavored with whale skin after getting a tip from an animal rights group.

Eater reports that the bar, called Nightjar, had been serving a drink with whale skin-infused whiskey. Called the Moby Dick, the drink contained Scotch, Galliano, lemon bitters, English Ale, and whale-flavored whiskey. One of the Nightjar employees reportedly bought a single dried piece of whale skin, only a few centimeters long, in Japan. That piece of whale skin was kept in a bottle that was repeatedly refilled with whiskey for the infusions.

Despite the tiny size of the whale skin, it is still illegal to hunt or trade cetaceans. However, given the circumstances, a full-on police raid may have been a little drastic. The Nightjar is cooperating and issued a statement of explanation and apology on its website. The note explained that the bar staff didn't know what they were doing was illegal.

Nightjar's director Edmund Weil also apologized, stating, "In hindsight having this cocktail on our menu — regardless of the legal framework around such products or the quantity used — was a grave error in judgment. We'd therefore like to apologise wholeheartedly to anybody who may have been offended by it. We genuinely feel ashamed about our lack of due diligence around this and our insensitivity to public opinion, and have taken the decision to donate all proceeds from the sale of this cocktail to a whale conservation charity."

The Moby Dick has been removed from the bar's menu. So far it's unclear if there will be legal ramifications.

Do you think what the bar was doing was wrong? Would you have tried the Moby Dick cocktail?